"Ben--I called you that yesterday and there's no use going back to last names now--I've made an important decision." "I hope it's a happy one," he ventured. "It's as happy as it can be, under the circumstances. Ben, I came of a line of frontiersmen--the forest people--and if the woods teach one thing it is to make the best of any bad situation." Ben nodded. For all his long training he had not entirely mastered this lesson himself, but he knew she spoke true. "We've found out how hard Fate can hit--if I can make it plain," she went on. "We've found out there are certain powers--or devils--or something else, and what I don't know--that are always lying in wait for people, ready to strike them down. Maybe you would call it Destiny. But the Destiny city men know isn't the Destiny we know out here--I don't have to tell you that. We see Nature just as she is, without any gay clothes, and we know the cruelty behind her smile, and the evil plans behind her gentle words." The man was amazed. Evidently the stress and excitement of the morning had brought out the fanciful and poetic side of the girl's nature. "We don't look for good luck," she told him. "We don't expect to live forever. We know what death is, and that it is sure to come, and that misfortune comes always--in the snow and the cold and the falling tree--and when we have good luck we're glad--we don't take it for granted. Living up here, where life is real, we've learned that we have to make the best of things in order to be happy at all." "And you mean--you're going to try to make the best of _this_?" His voice throbbed ever so slightly, because he could not hold it even. "There's nothing else I can do," she replied. "You've taken me here and as yet I don't see how I can get away. This doesn't mean I've gone over to your side." He nodded. He understood _that_ very well. "I'm just admitting that at present I'm in your hands--helpless--and many long weeks in before us," she went on. "I'm on my father's side, last and always, and I'll strike back at you if the chance comes. Expect no mercy from me, in case I ever see my way to strike." The man's eyes suddenly gleamed. "Don't you know--that you'd have a better chance of fighting me--if you didn't put me on guard?" "I don't think so. I don't believe you'd be fooled that easy. Besides--I can't pretend to be a friend--when I'm really an enemy." For one significant instant the man looked down. This was what he had done--pretended friendship when he was a foe. But his was a high cause! "I'm warning you that I'm against you to the last--and will beat you if I see my way," the girl went on. "But at the same time I'm going to make the best of a bad situation, and try to get all the comfort I can. I'm in your hands at present, and we're foes, but just the same we can talk, and try to make each other comfortable so that we can be comfortable ourselves, and try not to be any more miserable than we can help. I'm not going to cry any more."